After LSU debacle, Taylor’s the guy

By Darrell Laurant  |   Wednesday, September 12, 2007  |  Comments( 1 )

Virginia Tech Hokies
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Maybe there was a silver lining in the grim dark cloud that enveloped the Virginia Tech football team last Saturday night. If nothing else, the 48-7 Bayou butt-kicking at the hands (and feet) of No. 2 LSU hastened the long-anticipated debut of freshman quarterback Tyrod Taylor.

After Sean Glennon completed 2 of 10 passes, threw an interception, was sacked several times and generally performed like a deer in the headlights of an 18-wheeler, Taylor was sent in to salvage something from the wreckage.

It would be nice to say that he then led the Hokies to a dramatic come-from-behind victory, but it's doubtful that Peyton Manning or Brett Favre could have pulled it off at that point (Tech was already behind 24-0). Still, facing enormous pressure, the kid from Hampton managed to complete 7 of 18 passes for 62 yards and scramble for another 49, including a 23-yard run.

And, unlike Glennon, he actually moved from side to side, forcing the Tigers to at least chase him a little.

In all fairness to Glennon, he did play well at times last season. But that was with a much better Tech offensive line. This one allowed everyone but Mike the Tiger to get a run at the Hokie quarterbacks, and there was some talk that Mike might have been slipped in on special teams.

It quickly became painfully obvious on Saturday night that Glennon was the wrong quarterback for the wrong team at the wrong time.

If the game had been close, however, coach Frank Beamer might have kept Taylor on the sidelines. Nobody likes to lose 48-7 (Taylor scored the only Tech touchdown, by the way, on a short run), but if that's going to happen, it's better from the point of view of rankings and bowls to let it happen early.

On Monday, Beamer declared Taylor the new starter, and he'll have a nice three-game stretch -- Ohio University, William & Mary and North Carolina -- to get comfortable.

Glennon was an aberration at Tech, anyway. Going all the way back to Al Clark in the '90s, the Hokies' last four quarterbacks were scrambling types, from Clark to Michael Vick to Bryan Randall to Marcus Vick. Taylor is very much in that mold -- and it the Hokies aren't going to get better along the offensive front, they at least need a QB who won't be a stationary target.

It was nice, anyway, that the LSU band paid tribute to the 32 Tech students killed by a crazed campus shooter back on April 16. The Tiger football team, however, showed no mercy.

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